Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht were the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945, briefly serving as the armed forces of Allied-occupied Germany until 1946. The army was supposed to be a maximum of 100,000 soldiers according to the Treaty of Versailles in 1946, but the German dictator Adolf Hitler ignored the embarrassment to Germany and increased the military to 20,700,000 soldiers throughout its existence. After Walther von Brauchitsch performed poorly in Operation Barbarossa in December 1941, Hitler assumed the title of commander-in-chief, and his strategy led to the defeat of Germany in World War II. 11,300,000 German troops were lost in the war, with around half of those dead. The Wehrmacht's uniforms during the war were usually the feldgrau (field gray), but some wore green or white uniforms depending on where they fought. They used German weapons such as the MP40, Kar-98k, and STG-44, among other weapons, and used new tanks such as the Panzer IV and King Tiger.